Just as France presented the Statue of Liberty as its gift to the
nation, the citizens of San Francisco may now bestow their own
special gift to the country by renaming our award winning waste
water treatment plant in honor of outgoing President George W
Bush. We think this is a fitting memorial for a truly outstanding
Commander-in-Chief. On matters ranging from diplomacy to fiscal
and environmental stewardship, no other President has had
such a dramatic impact on the country and the Constitution in
such a short time. Most presidents wait years or decades to receive
their memorial airport or highway. We think President Bush
deserves immediate recognition for his eight years of public service.

Critics of this measure point out that the initiative unfairly
maligns the talented and hard working staff at the award-winning
plant or that it memorializes an administration best forgotten. To
this we simply say that those who forget history are condemned to
repeat it. President Bush has left us with a gigantic mess, and that
this facility symbolizes the city's deft ability to clean up its share
of the financial and diplomatic mess left in this administration's
wake. It will also become the world's first presidential sewage
plant, a potential tourist attraction, and therefore an opportunity
for the dedicated plant workers to educate visitors about this
essential and heretofore unknown public works. This measure will
have a minimal fiscal impact and may increase tourist traffic to
the plant, Zoo, and nearby attractions in southwest San Francisco,
creating yet another quirky must-see destination along with our
cable cars, Haight St, and Beach Blanket Babylon.

While discussing the Russian incursion into South Ossetia on
ABC's "This Week", conservative George Will referred to Russia
as a "primitive" country. This reference is puzzling in light of
Russia having produced geniuses like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky,
Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. To describe an entire nation in such
terms seems an extreme statement. (Would the show's host,
George Stefanopoulos, have remained silent had Will similarly
impugned the Greek nation?) Yet this remark should be understood
in light of Will's unspoken desire to ride up Brokeback
Mountain with W.

Maybe Vladimir Putin attacked Georgia because he hates freedom.
Or perhaps Putin invaded because he had to assist his
homies who were under attack, just as the Israelis retaliate whenever
their people are shot at or shelled. What is not in question is
that Putin had exposed Bush as an impotent buffoon: even were
John "we are all Georgians" McCain, Will's and ABC's preferred
candidate, to win this year's election, Russia will not be expelled from the G-8. No other country in NATO is going to send its
troops to South Ossetia. Like other neoconservatives, Will and his
employers at ABC are enraged that Putin has punk'd their beloved
Bush. Rather than acknowledge that reality, they prefer to disparage
the Russians as a bunch of primitives.

San Franciscans, take note: don't vote for this measure just
because you're upset that Midland's half-wit won the last election.
That's the kind of statement that Will and the neocons would
make. Such name-calling is really...primitive.

Colin V. Gallagher

As of this writing, 4139 servicemen and women have been
killed since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The number of Iraqis
who have been killed as a result of the invasion and occupation of
their country cannot be measured. The proponents of this measure
may consider the Bush Administration to be a joke. However, the
consequences of the decision to invade are not a laughing matter
for families of those who have died during the past five years.
This measure, whatever its intentions, disrespects them.

I agree that the invasion of Iraq is the worst foreign policy blunder
in the history of the US. I also agree that Bush has been the
most ignorant man to ever occupy the office of President. To call
him the worst President since Warren Harding is to insult the
memory of Harding, who at least did not enter this country into
any unnecessary wars.

Moreover, the federal debt at the end of this Administration
totals over $9 trillion, not including the recent guarantees extended
to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose liabilities may constitute
an additional $5 trillion to be paid by the U.S. taxpayer. Aside
from Iraq, Bush's legacy will be the addition of a prescription
drug benefit of at least $1.2 trillion without any mechanism for
funding the new Medicare entitlement. Bush's minions had specifically
ordered the civil service from disclosing the true cost of
the benefit from Congress before it had been voted upon. Maybe
it would be more appropriate to name the local bankruptcy court
or a consumer credit counseling center after Bush?

Besides, if we name the local sewage plant after Bush, then
what's left to name after Jesse Helms?

Fellow citizens, Mr. Gallagher's opposing argument does as
good a job as any we've heard at highlighting why George W.
Bush deserves this unique civic tribute. Since we can't say it better
ourselves we'll share this haiku, submitted by one of the many
supporters of this effort from San Francisco, around the country
and abroad: